New roles: professional staff sharing between a hospital and an academic library

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is a pediatric hospital and research institute affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC). Historically, the library at Childrens Hospital was staffed by a hospital-employed librarian. In 1999, the library position was outsourced to USC's Norris Medical Library. The new position is staffed by a librarian who divides her time equally between two locations: the Childrens Hospital Library and the Norris Medical Library. This staff sharing arrangement has three primary goals: increase the collaboration between the libraries; improve access to resources and library staff expertise; and provide faster document delivery service to the Childrens Hospital library. This paper presents the details of the position, and addresses the pros and cons for both libraries and the librarian.